Some Valve Art From Portal & DOTA 2

Realm Lovejoy is an artist currently working at Half-Life and Team Fortress developers Valve Software. Having helped create student title Narbacular Drop, which later evolved into what we now know as Portal, she’s also interned at Nintendo. So, yeah, dream career path right there. Among her current projects is Valve’s DOTA 2, for which she’s…

Company of Heroes, Homeworld Studio Making More Free-to-Play Games

PC strategy gods Relic Entertainment look to be moving deeper into the world of free-to-play games, if a number of job descriptions on the company’s site are anything to go by. (They usually are). They’re looking for a Creative Director, Executive Producer and Senior Designer, all of which are specifically tagged as “Free-to-Play” roles. It’s…

The Greatest Star Wars Battle You Never Saw

Did you ever, as a kid, re-enact pivotal moments from the Star Wars trilogy? I know I did. Hell, I’d have done it as a teenager playing X-Wing if I’d had an orange jumpsuit lying around. You probably never did something this cool though: a complete re-enactment of the Battle of Hoth, complete with AT-AT…

Men in Spandex. Fighting. At the Tokyo Game Show.

To promote its latest wrestling card venture, Japanese developer Bushiroad held, well, a live wrestling match at this year’s Tokyo Game Show. Earlier this year, Bushiroad announced that it had acquired the rights to make card games for New Japan Pro-Wrestling

Every Death From Season Two Of Game of Thrones, In One Big Video

Be warned, there are spoilers ahead. Not that people die in the second series of HBO’s adaptation. That’s, uh, kind of the point. But some of the deaths are kinda important. And I’m not just talking about ***** or that time when ****** gets ****** by that ******. Oh, how we laughed. And then cried.…

Ninja Theory isn’t handling the PC edition of DMC. Polish studio QLOC is, and it’ll be out after the console versions

Sony Wants Your PlayStation to Automatically Know Who You Are

In May this year, Sony Computer Entertainment filed an application for a patent concerning biometric security. Not an entirely new idea, since there are consumer devices like phones (and the Kinect) that already have things like facial recognition, but it’s the scale of Sony’s thoughts on the matter that are important here. The patent, called…

Black Mesa: The Kotaku Review

Fan-made Black Mesa is a remake of Valve’s classic 1998 shooter Half-Life. It’s been in development for around eight years, which is poignant, since it’s been around that long since I’ve played the original. A lot has changed since then. For starters, the project’s original goal slowly became almost untenable as time went by. First…

Hands On with the Brand New Circle Pad Pro for 3DS XL

Nintendo has once again made an add-on second Circle Pad for the 3DS. And, you know what, it’s not half bad. Actually, it seems like the Circle Pad Pro for the XL could be pretty good. The smartest thing about the larger Circle Pad Pro is its design. It’s not nearly as bulky as the…

And Now, Ron Swanson Will Perform Slam Poetry About Bacon

You know what’s awesome? That Parks and Recreation comes back on tonight. You know what else is awesome? This video of Nick Offerman, who plays gruff saxophone playing bureaucrat Ron Swanson on the show, playing bongos while performing slam poetry about bacon. Sometimes it’s hard to tell where the Offerman ends and the Swanson begins.…

Super Mario Bros. Level 1 Recreated On A…Mobius Strip?

Mobius strips are pretty neat on their own. You can cut them down the center, and it’ll just make it longer. You can perform multiple cuts, and it’ll just create three Mobius strips, linked together. Fascinating stuff. But this particular Mobius strip is a never-ending level of Super Mario Bros.. And as you turn it…

Slender Is Getting A Sequel With Better Graphics, More Scares

By now, most folks know about Slender: The Eight Pages. The crude yet terrifying indie game has become something of an internet sensation over the last couple of months, scaring the pants off of countless thousands around the world. Mark Hadley, who designed the game, has announced that in a joint effort with Blue Isle…

Up Close with Circle Pad Pro for the 3DS XL

Yesterday, Nintendo revealed that a larger circle pad add-on was headed to the 3DS XL—something that Nintendo first mentioned this past summer. Here is a first look at the new Circle Pad Pro for the 3DS XL. Nintendo has not given a release date for the Circle Pad Pro for the 3DS XL, nor has…

Sony Didn’t Drop the Price of the PS3 So As Not To Upset You

Usually, when a new form factor existing video game hardware debuts, there’s a corresponding change in the asking price. But the upcoming re-design of the PlayStation 3 seem to buck that trend, with the 250 GB bundle announced this week set to go for $270. Prices on older models—a 160 GB version starts at $250…

My Favorite Music From Borderlands 2 Isn’t On The Official Soundtrack

When I heard that well-known video game composer Jesper Kyd was handling the music for Borderlands 2, my first thought was, “Huh.” Kyd, a versatile and icily atmospheric writer best known for his work on the first Assassin’s Creed games, seems like an odd fit for Borderlands, a game loaded to the gills with flesh-eating…

WAVVES Rocker Makes A Zelda-Inspired Mixtape Worthy Of The Princess Herself

Fans of Zelda music would do well to go check out Eternal Champ by Sweet Valley. Sweet Valley is a side project by Nathan Williams of Wavves—this new record combines some wild sounds with some deep Ocarina of Time action to make something truly lovely. The whole album can be downloaded for free from bandcamp.…

Check Out Clips From The Entire Halo 4 Soundtrack Right Now

Thanks to the magic of iTunes, Halo fans can now get a substantial taste of Neil Davidge’s music for the upcoming Halo 4. The soundtrack has been listed for preorder on the British store, and you can listen to short samples of each of the 15 tracks. I’ve been looking forward to hearing the soundtrack…

Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge Slices and Dices, and Still Cuts Through a Beer Can Like This

This is a couple minutes of gameplay for Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge, the Wii U launch title that carves through dough-headed stooges like this and still can slice a tomato like this. The game throws blood all over the screen as Ryu traipses, mostly unchallenged, through what appears to be an early level. On-screen…

10 GameCube Games That Should Be Downloadable On Wii U

The Wii U won’t play GameCube discs. But it will play the Virtual Console, Nintendo’s online shop that lets you buy games from old consoles like the Super Nintendo and N64. We’re two generations removed from the GameCube now. That qualifies it as an old console. So when chatting with Nintendo of America president Reggie…

Sports Video Gaming’s First Panel Show, Available Now by Podcast

Press Row, a discussion of sports video gaming and current topics in the industry and the sports they reflect, debuted yesterday. It’s a collaboration of some of the biggest publications and sites dedicated to the subject, including Operation Sports, GamesRadar and Polygon. I was one of the panelists in the debut discussion. Press Row has…